Playing Around

Areola? Wait a minute, isn't that the dark circle of skin around one's nipple? Dammit, Janet -- call Michael Powell at the FCC, stat! Or does the name ever so innocently refer to "a small space, as between the veins of a leaf or the ribs of an insect's wing," as its first definition in Webster's New World College Dictionary indicates? Just when you thought it was safe to say what "is is" again, here comes a crew of semi-joker jam/pop/funk/metal merrymakers (now celebrating their one-year anniversary) who freely espouse lines like "You might eat your beans/ You might cream your jeans" to psych rock riffs la Hendrix and then turn right around and get all Bossanova. This isn't Ween, bro. Well, not entirely. And it definitely ain't Weezer. But hey, now that Sonic Youth is serving up tributes to Jerry Garcia, it's anything goes, yo! With Eric Davis on geetar, Chad Orr on yokel vocals, Brandon Bernard on the skins and Newt Gaddo on the booty bass, you'll love and/or hate (as they freely admit) this wonderfully whimsical, genre-less band of musical banditos.